


The Changing of the Seasons

by rubyofkukundu



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Humor, Hurt/Comfort, Menstruation, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-19
Updated: 2018-11-19
Packaged: 2019-08-26 01:46:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16672441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rubyofkukundu/pseuds/rubyofkukundu
Summary: The Doctor gets her first period. Thankfully, Yaz is on hand to help.





	The Changing of the Seasons

When it came to the incident with the three-headed goat-thing (there had been a proper name for it, but Yaz had forgotten what that was) in some galaxy that was too far away in both space and time, the Doctor's mood had not been the first thing that had stuck in the mind. After all, when you're running from a mad, fire-breathing (fire-breathing!) goat (or goat-ish) creature for what feels like a whole day, you tend not to notice if your friends happen to be more tetchy than normal.

Thinking back on it though, with hindsight (that wonderful thing), perhaps Yaz should have paid more attention. Certainly, yes, the Doctor had seemed to be at her normal level of brilliance and childish excitement, and certainly, yes, the Doctor had been a little annoyed with the way things had gone. But the Doctor shouting, "That's it! I have had it up to _here_ with your nonsense!" at the goat, before raising the huge forcefield to block it out, then adding, "And if you come back, then you can bet I'm going to do something I _deeply_ regret! And do it repeatedly!" was perhaps a bit more harsh than you would normally expect.

Once they were safely back on the TARDIS, the Doctor had seemed the most tired of them all. Groaning, she had flopped face first over the console and had waved the rest of them off to bed.

Yaz had been too exhausted to pay much attention at the time. But now... Now she found herself woken by a huge lurch of the TARDIS, followed by an alarming creaking sound (or rather, a more alarming creaking sound than usual).

That did not bode well. And so, in pyjamas and slippers, Yaz headed out to the console room to find out what was going on.

What she found was the Doctor running about, pulling levers and pressing buttons. The TARDIS gave another lurch and the Doctor stumbled back a few steps. "Steady now," the Doctor said to the console. "There's no need to complain." She wrinkled her nose. "And you didn't even give me a biscuit this time." Then she put a hand to her side and groaned.

"Doctor," called Yaz from the door where she was standing, "what's happening?"

The Doctor glanced up at Yaz and beamed. "Yaz!" she cried. "Perfect timing! Come and join me. I've changed course for Sheffield. We need chips. Well, fish and chips. Or maybe a fishcake. Or a pie. _A pie!_ Yes. Chicken and mushroom." She closed her eyes for a moment and groaned again. "I don't have time for this now," she muttered to herself, grimacing. "Come on."

Yaz accepted the invitation over to the console, but she was frowning. "Are you ok?" she asked.

"Never better!" replied the Doctor, flashing her a smile. Then the Doctor grimaced again and panted a few times. "Well, sometimes better. _Obviously_ sometimes better. But it's probably not that bad. Just a bit of..." More groaning. "Very unlikely that it's fatal, at least." She flashed another grin. "So probably all fine."

This did not have the soothing effect that the Doctor seemed to think it would. Yaz wondered how much of her first-aid training might work on an alien. "You don't sound fine. Maybe we should..."

"No," said the Doctor, wincing as she clambered down to sit on the floor. "No need for any of that." She closed her eyes and leaned back against the console. "I can handle it. Just a bit of bleeding. Not much bleeding. Well, not _loads_ of bleeding." She bared her teeth in what was probably meant to be a smile. "Funny, really, as I didn't think I'd been hit down on the planet. Must have been the strength of the forcefield. All I need, though, is a bit of a rest and some fish and chips." She sighed, her hand clutching at her side. "And she never gave me that biscuit."

"Ok," said Yaz as she crouched down to the Doctor's level, "you _definitely_ need help if you're bleeding." Gently, she put a hand to the Doctor's side, where the Doctor was holding it. "Is it here? If we can get some bandages then we should be able to stop the bleeding long enough for us to get to..."

"No no." The Doctor opened one eye to peer at Yaz and attempted a weak smile. "No need. I've already found some bandages. Staunched it, as it were. Will probably stop bleeding soon." She grimaced again. "Be nice if it would stop hurting too, but I suppose you can't have everything."

Yaz frowned, her concern refusing to lessen. "Where does it hurt?" she asked, gesturing at the Doctor's side again. "Just here?"

"Here _and_ here," clarified the Doctor, pressing her hands to both sides of her body. "And at the back. Or is it the front? The front too."

"You're bleeding all over?" asked Yaz in alarm.

"No," said the Doctor emphatically, now opening both eyes. "It's not that serious. I'm only _hurting_ all over. Whereas the bleeding is just..." The Doctor gestured vaguely at her groin. "...down below."

"Down below?" asked Yaz, panicking that the Doctor must have some kind of internal injury for her to be hurting in so many places and bleeding from... But then Yaz stopped. And thought about it.

"Hold on," said Yaz. "You're bleeding between your legs?"

The Doctor nodded. "That's it. Yes."

"And you're hurting all over here?" Yaz gestured at the Doctor's abdomen.

The Doctor nodded again.

Yaz stared at her.

The Doctor looked back in return.

"Could it not be..." started Yaz, pausing when it was clear that the Doctor wasn't following where she was going with this. "Forgive me, Doctor, but Time Lords... Do you? I mean, I know you're different inside to us, but do you get periods?"

The Doctor looked blank. "Periods... Time periods?"

"Well," said Yaz, trying not to laugh because this _was not_ a good time. "A month. But..." She pursed her lips. "It's less of a time period and more of a _period_ period." This received no response. "I mean a cycle," clarified Yaz. "A monthly cycle, where you bleed for a bit and then, um... whatever happens next." She had a feeling that she wasn't explaining this very well. "You _must_ know. The female reproductive system. Ovulation and all that."

The Doctor stared for a moment, then sat up straight. "No way," she said, wide-eyed. "No way! It can't be... Can it?" She turned and scrabbled back up until she was standing at the console. Frantically, she pressed several buttons, gave herself a once over with her sonic, and then turned on the nearest screen.

Yaz stood up too, so she could see what the screen showed. Reams of text were flashing across it, and Yaz couldn't make out what it said, but the accompanying diagram showed the Doctor's body with a light clearly flashing in the abdomen.

"Oh..." said the Doctor, gaping at the screen. "I'm in _season_." Her face broke into a brilliant smile. "I've never had that before."

"In season?" asked Yaz. "You mean like...?"

"Yes!" said the Doctor, turning to her. "It lasts a whole season. Well, one of our seasons. It's about a year by Earth's standards."

"A year?" cried Yaz, aghast at the prospect.

The Doctor frowned, turning back to the screen. "Funny though," she said. "It normally only happens when we find someone we want to settle down with. You know: have children and all that." She pressed some more buttons and stared at the screen. "Perhaps it was triggered by my regeneration... Wow."

The moment was then ruined somewhat by the Doctor sagging against the console. "Argh..." She clenched her teeth together. "Why does it have to hurt though? I never realised it was going to _hurt_."

Yaz finally gave into the urge to put her arms around the Doctor. "It's ok," said Yaz. "It's ok." And she guided the Doctor back down to sit on the floor. "The pain is normal. It sucks, but it's normal. Well, for humans at least." Yaz sat back on her heels, still holding one of the Doctor's hands. "Do you have any painkillers you can take?"

"No." The Doctor's face was pinched. "Used them all up after the bees."

"Right," said Yaz, stroking the Doctor's knuckles. "Then as soon as we get to Sheffield we're going to a pharmacy to get some, plus a hot water bottle."

The Doctor looked at her. "A hot water bottle?"

Yaz smiled. "Trust me." Then she let go of the Doctor's hand and sat down beside her instead, leaning her shoulder against the Doctor's. "Did you really tell me that you'd used bandages?"

"Yes." The Doctor tipped her head back against the console. She put a hand to her side again. "I'm pretty sure that's what bandages are for: stopping bleeding." 

"Well, yes, I suppose," agreed Yaz. "But how did you manage to bandage up... you know."

The Doctor shrugged. "Admittedly, it wasn't easy. I had to..." She looked down and mimed a complex wrapping motion. "Girded my loins, as it were."

Yaz tried hard not to laugh at the description. She suppressed it into a smile instead. "There are definitely easier things to use than bandages."

The Doctor turned to her. "There are?"

Yaz nodded. "Sanitary towels, tampons... When we're in that pharmacy you can choose what you'd prefer to use." She thought about it. "There's even mooncups, I suppose, if you want a reusable option."

"Mooncup?" The Doctor's eyes lit up. "Oh, that sounds brilliant! I want one of those! I bet it's some kind of chalice, right?" She sat forward and gestured with both hands as if she were raising a large goblet to the moon in a toast. "A lunar holy grail, where you drink..."

"No. No." And Yaz couldn't help laughing this time. "No," she said again. "A mooncup is a small thing." She used her hand to mimic the size of it. "Made of silicone, I think. Or rubber. Or something. You use it internally, like a tampon. It's definitely not a cup for drinking."

The Doctor paused in her recreation of whatever moon-worshipping chalice ceremony she had in her mind, and turned to Yaz. "Internally?"

"Yeah," said Yaz. "Like a tampon."

The Doctor looked blank. "A tampon?"

"Yes," said Yaz. She scratched at the top of her head and tried to work out how on earth to describe one. "A tampon is a small, absorbent... uh... thing. And you wear it internally, where it can absorb the blood..." Yaz suddenly realised she was making a gesture with her fingers that was both informative and obscene in equal parts. She forced herself to stop.

If anything the Doctor looked even more blank. Her nose had wrinkled. "Yeah, still not with you on this whole 'internal' thing."

Now was the moment that the blush, which had been threatening to embarrass Yaz for a while, decided to appear in full force. Yaz stared at the Doctor and tried desperately to find the right words to explain (the _polite_ words, which all seemed to have disappeared from her mind in a rush). Thankfully, she finally hit upon it: "Vagina!" said Yaz. "I mean..." She coughed. "That's where the internal part comes in: internally, in your vagina." She flushed further. "In _a_ vagina, that is. In _one's_ vagina."

The Doctor's expression hadn't changed.

Oh no. "You don't... know...?" said Yaz hesitantly. "Er, a vagina is a ho... uh...an orifice that leads up to..." She had a sudden thought. "Oh my God," she gasped. "Do you even have one?" Then Yaz put a hand to her mouth, mortified. "Sorry! I don't mean...! But I... I do mean... Like, I know your anatomy is different to ours, so maybe you don't..." Yaz stopped and thought about it some more. "But wait... If you don't have a vagina then where would you be bleeding fro...?"

"Oh," said the Doctor. " _Oh._ " She once again turned and clambered up the console until she was standing (more or less). For a moment she peered at the diagram of herself that was still showing on the screen, then she pressed some buttons to enlarge it. "Aha!" said the Doctor after a moment, pointing. "Vagina! I do have one!" She stared wonderingly at the screen. "Who knew?"

"What?" said Yaz. "How could you _not_ know?" She stood up to see the screen for herself. That looked like a diagram of a vagina alright.

"Easily," replied the Doctor, still looking at the screen, "apparently." She turned to Yaz. "Anyway, how was I supposed to know I have one? It's not as if on my regeneration I was handed a note that said, 'By the way, you have a vagina now.'"

"But it's your body!" said Yaz.

The Doctor shrugged her shoulders in protest. "Yeah," she said, "but listen. After my regeneration my _whole body_ was different. And down there, there was nothing to see any more." She waggled a hand down near her groin. "So I assumed there was nothing going on."

"Oh my God," said Yaz again. For a guilty moment she found herself wondering what it would be like to help the Doctor discover all sorts of new and exciting facts about herself; if, say, they had a bedroom and a whole night to share together. Yaz felt her blush rising again.

The Doctor, however, was too busy looking down at herself to notice the redness to Yaz's face. "I wonder how many other things I might have missed," said the Doctor. She poked absently at one of her boobs.

Yaz choked (and tried to style it out as a normal cough).

Thankfully, the Doctor had turned her attention back to the screen. "So for humans, your season lasts for a month, huh."

"Er..." said Yaz, trying to regain some sort of control over her voice. "First: it's a period." She took a breath. "Second: it doesn't last for a month. It _happens_ once a month. It actually only lasts for about five days or so."

"Seriously?" The Doctor turned to her, wide-eyed. "Once a month? You mean once _every_ month?"

"Yes?" said Yaz.

"Wow," was the Doctor's response. "Doesn't that get a bit... _Every_ month?" She shook her head. "I don't know; often I think I know humans, then suddenly I find out they're even more astounding than I imagined." And she threw Yaz a smile that was so enthusiastic that Yaz couldn't help but return it.

"So, you're saying," said the Doctor, leaning more heavily on the console and putting a hand to her side again, "that every human woman has to go through all this..." She gestured weakly at herself. "...every month?"

"Yup," said Yaz. "Well, most women."

"Wow," said the Doctor again. She frowned down at the console for a moment. "So that means that Bill...?" she muttered. "And Clara? And Amy?" She frowned further. "And Martha? And Donna? Rose?" The Doctor gasped and raised herself on her arms. "Ace? Mel? Liz? Polly? Barbara?" She turned to Yaz, eyes wide. "Sarah Jane? Surely not Sarah Jane!"

Yaz shrugged, trying not to feel jealous to hear of so many people that the Doctor was close to (and she'd barely heard the Doctor mention any of them before!) "Probably," said Yaz, nodding. "Probably Sarah Jane too."

"But you humans are amazing!" cried the Doctor, with all the enthusiasm of a child on their birthday (and any thoughts of jealousy that Yaz might have had simply fell away).

A short while later Yaz got dressed and then she and the Doctor stepped out into Sheffield in search of a pharmacy plus Yaz's favourite chippy. They'd left Ryan and Graham asleep on the TARDIS. ("Let them rest," the Doctor had said. "They've had a long day. And we can always have chips tomorrow too if they complain about missing out. Or we could have chips yesterday. Or last Wednesday. Or, well, any day you choose, really." And she'd given Yaz a ridiculous smile.)

By the time they'd got their chips it had just turned six in the evening and the sun was almost fully set. With polystyrene trays of chips in hand and wafting the smell of vinegar, Yaz and the Doctor headed across the road from the chip shop and sat down on a low wall to eat.

The Doctor's portion of chips also had a pie on top, in a yellow foil case. ("Chicken and mushroom," the Doctor said proudly. "A thing of beauty.")

For a while they ate in silence, watching the cars and the people go past on the road, and enjoying that particular feeling that comes from eating hot chips on a cool evening.

Then, without warning, the Doctor sighed and leaned her head against Yaz's shoulder. Through the leather of her jacket Yaz could feel the Doctor's jaw still chewing, which was unexpectedly adorable in a way that Yaz felt woefully-unprepared for.

The Doctor swallowed. "Thank you, Yaz," she said, picking up the pharmacy carrier bag at her side and giving it a little wiggle. "For the supplies, and for the support."

"No problem." Yaz patted the Doctor on the head with her least-greasy hand. (Surprisingly, the Doctor's hair wasn't as soft as it looked.) "I know that I would have felt pretty overwhelmed by my first period if I hadn't had my Mum there to help me out."

"Yaz's Mum," said the Doctor contentedly. "Well done, Yaz's Mum." She put another chip in her mouth, chewed and swallowed. "When was that then? Last year?"

"No!" Yaz found herself laughing harder than she probably ought to. "Definitely not last year. To be honest, I don't remember what year it was. I think I was about 12?"

"What?" cried the Doctor sitting up straight and nearly dislodging Yaz's chips in the process. "12?" She stared at Yaz. "But that's just a child!"

"Yeah?" said Yaz, taken aback by such a strong reaction. "That's pretty normal?"

The Doctor frowned at her for a long while before declaring, "You humans are weird."

"Not that weird," retaliated Yaz. "At least our periods don't last a whole year."

"Season," said the Doctor. "It's a season."

They stared at each other for a moment. But then, as if in mutual agreement, they both turned back to the road and started on their chips again.

"You know," said the Doctor after a while, rifling through her carrier bag with one hand, "I'd still like to get a mooncup sometime. I think it'd be cool." She turned to Yaz. "If I did, would you show me how to use it? I'm not sure I'd get it in correctly by myself."

Yaz inhaled a chip. She spluttered. "Never actually used one," she croaked between coughs.

"Shame." The Doctor pouted for a second, but then she appeared to remember her pie. "Hey, do you think there's a reason why they taste better when eaten out of the foil container?" she asked, holding it up to admire it.

But Yaz was still too busy spluttering to answer.


End file.
